A South Korean expert has denied that he provided quotes for a Japanese report that said South Korea secured key chip supply from Belgium amid Japan's export curbs.

Hanyang University Professor Park Jae-keun, who heads the Korean Society of Semiconductor and Display Technology, told Yonhap News on Sunday that he has never met or spoke with a reporter from Japan's Nikkei Asian Review.

He said the financial newspaper made it look like he had spoken to them when it issued a report on Saturday that claimed Samsung had locked down a photoresist supplier in Belgium due to Japan's trade restrictions against South Korea.

Park called the Japanese report completely erroneous and explained that a Nikkei reporter had asked him to comment on a story by another media outlet, but he told the reporter, via his secretary, to seek comments directly from that media outlet.

The Nikkei quoted Park as saying that Samsung Electronics is procuring photoresist from a company in Belgium amid Japan's tightened export controls.

Last Thursday, Tokyo gave the go-ahead for a shipment of extreme ultraviolet photoresists, which are used in the production of semiconductors. It marked the first such approval since Tokyo slapped trade restrictions on fluorinated polyimides, photoresists and etching gas to South Korea on July 4.